The purpose of this proposal is to request support for a dissemination conference to be conducted by Denver Health and the Mid-America Manufacturing Technology Center (MAMTC). The title of this conference is "Lean Training for Healthcare System Redesign" and is planned for October 19-21 in Denver, Colorado. The primary target audience for this conference is public hospitals and health systems that are members of the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems (NAPH). NAPH represents over 100 hospitals and health systems that together comprise the essential infrastructure of many of America's largest metropolitan area health systems. These facilities share a common mission to serve all members of their communities regardless of ability to pay. The specific objectives of the conference will be to: 1) Provide an overview of the origin of lean thinking and waste reduction, its key principles, its use in the non-health care environment, and the possible application to the health care arena. 2) Describe the impact of the application of lean principles on patient safety and satisfaction, quality of care, efficiency and workforce development. 3) Explore the business case for using lean thinking and waste reduction strategies in healthcare systems. 4) Briefly review the methodology and tools for instituting lean thinking and waste reduction strategies in health systems. 5) Present case examples that successfully applied lean thinking and waste reduction strategies in its facility, with a particular emphasis on approaches to jump-starting the redesign process. 6) Disseminate conference content through videotape, written materials and slides (both soft and hard copies), publication in trade journals and presentation at conferences.